Have technological advances in sports such as tennis, golf, and track and field supplanted the athletic achievements of the participants in those sports

Have technological advances in sports such as tennis, golf, and track and
field supplanted the athletic achievements of the participants in those
sports?

Photo by: sculpies

Viewpoint:
Yes, advanced technology in sports has significantly narrowed the gap
between world record holders and the way the athletic achievement is
perceived.

Viewpoint:
No, technological advances in sports such as tennis, golf, and track and
field have not supplanted the athletic achievements of the participants in
those sports.

In the twentieth century, the entire face of sports changed drastically
with the advent of new technologies. Today advertisements for new types of
running shoes, golf clubs, tennis rackets, and hundreds of other sports
accessories bombard us. The level of scientific research into something as
simple as a golf ball can be mind-boggling. With new materials and
computer engineering, improvements are being made on sporting equipment
faster than marketers can publicize them.

This advance in technology has broadened the spectrum of athletes.
Improvements in safety standards, cost, and accessibility have allowed
more people to take advantage of formerly exclusive sporting events.
Self-improvement and exercise are thriving businesses, and sporting
manufacturers have capitalized on this interest, promising better
performance as the result of their equipment or product.

Sports technology has found its greatest proponents among professional
athletes. Athletes like Pete Sampras, Tiger Woods, and Nick Hysong now
have access to far better equipment than ever before. Advances in sports
equipment have undoubtedly played a role in the achievement of these
athletes in their respective fields.

Athletes are often elevated to the status of superheroes, revered by the
public for their successes. Many consider the players even more important
than the game. This, in turn, has made competition fiercer than ever. With
enormous amounts of money, and sponsorship, riding on an athlete's
performance, the old adage "it isn't whether you win or
lose" has fallen to the wayside. Some would argue that
today's athletes are willing to take any advantage they can get.
They want to hit further, jump higher, or run faster and further than
their opponent. Could it be argued that winning for the sake of winning
has begun to replace the wonder of athletic achievement? If so, how large
a role does technology play in that success? What truly makes these
athletes exceptional? Is it personal achievement in and dedication to
their sport, or has technology made them into the athletes they are today?
Did Venus Williams or her racket win Wimbledon in 2001? Did David Duval
become the 2001 U.S. Open golf champion because of practice or because he
used a certain type of club? Was it the shoes Marion Jones wore or her
tireless training that captured the 2000 Olympic gold medals in the
Women's 100M and 200M races?

While some would argue that there is no replacement for raw athletic
talent, many maintain that the technological advances in sporting
equipment have added significantly to athletic performance. For example,
there is disagreement about whether current-day athletic achievements
should be viewed with the same regard as records established in the
past—when athletes were performing without the benefit of graphite
tennis rackets, fiberglass poles, ultra-light running shoes, and titanium
golf clubs. Even the athletes themselves are divided on the issue. Despite
the ongoing debate, it is certain that athletes will continue to utilize
advances in sports technology to enhance and better their performance.

—LEE ANN PARADISE

Viewpoint: Yes, advanced technology in sports has significantly narrowed
the gap between world record holders and the way the athletic
achievement is perceived.

When people talk about the prowess of Tiger Woods, Michael Chang, or
Stacy Dragila, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist in the women's pole
vault, it's impossible to ignore how improvements in sports
equipment contributed to their success. While technological advances do
not negate the achievement of the athletes or fully explain their
accomplishments, better golf balls, tennis rackets with bigger
"sweet spots," and springier poles have enabled athletes
to perform better in this century than ever before. No competitive
professional would think of returning to the wooden tennis racquet or
smooth golf ball. Today, the alternatives are just that much better.

Technological Improvements of Sports Equipment

In 1963 with the advent of aluminum, fiberglass, and graphite poles, the
pole vault record shot up 2 ft (0.61 m) in three years and now stands at
over 20 ft (6.09 m). Prior to that technological innovation, the pole
vault record increased only about 2 in (5 cm) to 16 ft (4.88 m) between
1942 and 1960. At the Atlanta Olympics, Michael Johnson became the first
male athlete to win both the 200-and 400-meter sprint. He also set the
new world record in the 200-meter sprint—wearing specially
designed ultra-light Nike running shoes weighing just 3.4 oz (96.39 g).
Now, many sprinters also wear full-body suits to reduce wind resistance,
which could make the critical hundreth of a second difference in a race.

In the future, the advanced technology of the vaulting pole, running
shoes, or golf ball will make more of a difference in the future than it
has in the past. In some sports it will be because the time differences
between first and second place will continue to shrink, allowing more
room for technological improvements in equipment to give athletes an
edge. Also, sports technology is not just limited to improvements in
equipment. The modern-day athlete can now depend on computerized
training systems to analyze their swing, stride, and follow-through.

When discussing technological improvements to sports equipment a
distinction must be drawn between legitimate improvements and
improvements that give athletes an unfair advantage—the equipment
equivalent of performance enhancing drugs. In almost every sport
there's been debate about how this distinction should be drawn.
After a German inventor devised a "spaghetti racquet" with
a standard frame and double strings fitted with plastic tubes designed
to give the ball more topspin, the International Tennis Federation
jumped in to prevent potential uproar. A tennis racquet could be made
out of any material, be any weight, size, and shape, the Federation
said, but it cannot alter the flight of the ball and the strings must
also be evenly spaced.

Sometimes the distinction is not so clear. A new golf club, the ERC II,
does not conform to United States Golf Association specifications
because of a "trampoline effect" that gives the club more
spring. However, the USGA does allow some spring in golf clubs—as
long as it's below a set "spring-back number" of
83%. Similarly, with the introduction of fiberglass poles for use in the
pole vault there are now over 200 poles of varying stiffnesses from
different makers. In 1998, a special United States Track and Field Pole
Vault Equipment Task Force was created to determine if there should be a
standard "flex number" for maufacturers to follow.

Sports Technology—Optimizing Athletic Performance

The recent push of athletic associations to standardize rather than
outlaw new innovations points to the growing importance of sports
technology for optimizing athletic performance. Although some current
changes are more apparent than others—like form-fitting body
suits that some world-class swimmers and sprinters now wear—there
has been a steady evolution of even seemingly mundane sports equipment
for decades.

One of the best examples is the golf ball. The first generation of golf
balls resembled hacky sacks, covered and leather and filled with
feathers. The ball, called a "feathery," could be struck
up to 200 yd (182.88 m) but slowed when it became damp. Around the same
time, ballmakers started experimenting with the gutty ball, a golf ball
made out of a rubbery substance called "gutta-percha" from
India. When softened in hot water, gutta-percha could be rolled into the
shape of a ball with the hands.

Soon after, ballmakers made a sports-changing discovery: The newly made
smooth balls did not fly as well as older balls. The reason? As golfers
hit the balls, the surface of the balls became more nicked, and the
bumpy surface is what made the difference in performance. The bumps or
dimples on a golf ball trap a layer of air that extends the flight of
the ball. Since the golf balls travel forward with a backspin, the layer
of air on top of the ball moves faster than the layer of air at the
bottom. This creates more air pressure underneath the ball, resulting in
better lift. Years later, the dimpled golf ball still survived but in a
different form. The new golf ball consisted of rubber strips wound
around a rubber core—signaling the death knell of the gutty ball.

In the past century, carbon fiberglass—lighter than metal or
wood—revolutionized both tennis and the pole vault. When pole
vaulting began as a competitive sport, athletes used bamboo poles with a
sharp point at the bottom to plant in the grass. Today, modern poles are
made out of fiberglass and are much lighter than their bamboo or metal
counterparts. The lighter poles allow athletes to run faster and gain
the momentum they need to vault higher.

The new poles also have more spring. The fiberglass pole absorbs more of
the vaulter's energy when it bends and as it straightens. Along
with rubberized track surfaces, special boxes for planting the pole, and
padded landing pits, the new fiberglass poles help athletes attain
records that would be impossible to obtain using the traditional
equipment.

Today, tennis rackets that used to be made out of wood have also turned
composite. This in spite of former Wimbledon champion Bjorn
Borg's stubborn insistence on using his wooden racket even after
the introduction of the new lighter metal and graphite rackets. In the
1960s, manufacturers started introducing metal frames of steel and
aluminum, later turning to an array of materials from titanium to
graphite shells with plastic foam cores. Modern-day tennis rackets also
feature larger "sweet spots" that minimize vibration.

Aside from using new materials, manufacturers also started experimenting
with the physical design of the tennis racket. When Head increased the
size of the face of its racket 20%, it resulted in a 300% increase in
the size of the sweet spot. Later, Prince introduced its Long-Body
tennis racket designed to have a greater length and give the player more
control. New lighter materials like graphite helped maufacturers to
lengthen rackets, giving shorter players like Michael Chang a longer
reach without a lot of additional weight.

As for golf, the traditional wooden golf club has changed as much as the
ball. Golfers now use drivers with the weight distributed around the
edge of the clubhead, specially designed to maximize the efficiency of
each hit. The titanium-based shafts and club heads have also helped
professionals and weekend golfers improve their game.

It's difficult to assess precisely how much of a difference
improved technology makes in the competitiveness of an athlete. But
it's undeniable that the equipment—whether it's the
shoes, ball, or pole—is receiving more attention than in the
past. The evolution of the pole vault is a prime example. In their
coverage of the 2000 Olympics,
Newsday.com
ran an infographic about the switch from fiberglass to metal poles.
Another Web site,
NBCOlympics.com
, hosted a chat with Stacy Dragila, the American gold medalist of the
first ever women's Olympic pole vault. Participants asked her
about her training regime, mindset, injuries, and the improvements seen
in pole technology. To the questioner who asked, "How much of the
sport depends on the pole? How much depends on the athlete?"
Dragila gave this telling response: "That's a tough
question. I think it's a 50/50 take right there. You have to be
able to maximize your pole selection as well as your athleticism. If
you're not comfortable with your pole, I think it's very
hard for the vaulter to maximize her strength on the pole, so
it's a 50/50 toss."

On the golf course, as the technological revolution of the golf ball
continues, it appears that the wound ball with its core of tightly
wrapped rubber bands will now go the way of the feathery and the gutty
ball. In the 2000
Masters, 59 out of 95 players hit wound balls. A year later, only four
competitors chose to use wound balls. The solid-core ball is quickly
becoming the ball of choice. When Tiger Woods used wound balls, he
averaged a 288.9 yd (264.17 m) drive. With the solid-core, he averages
305.4 yd (279.26 m). But the innovation doesn't stop at the golf
ball core. When Jesper Parnevik won the Honda Classic, he cited the new
Titleist Pro VI as contributing factor in his win. The new ball
featuring an innovative dimple design and "ionamer casing"
results in higher ball speed with lower spin.

In addition to revolutionizing equipment, improved sports technology has
also shrunk the difference between winners and losers, allowing
thousandths of a second to decide who finishes first and who finishes
second. Modern-day timing systems start with the firing of the starting
gun and stop when a light-based sensor detects the winner across the
finish line. Now that there are fewer improvements that can be made to
the equipment—namely limited to slight adjustments to the surface
of the track and weight of the shoes—the difference in winning
times of the 100-meter sprint has shrunk. Improvements are now made in
about 0.006 second increments rather than the 0.015 second improvements
seen in the early 1900s. Although improvements in time, at least in the
shorter running events, will be largely due to the training regime of
the athletes, the technology that measures their performance will be
distinguishing a "win" that might have been a
"tie" a century ago.

Computerized measuring devices might even change the judging of other
sports like the pole vault. Historically, the pole vault has been judged
strictly on the height of the bar that the athlete scaled. Now, poles
with light-emitting diode (LEDs) can measure the actual altitude a pole
vaulter has achieved.

Aside from altering the way we conceive of winning and losing, in sports
like tennis and golf, computer-based systems are now helping players
analyze their performance over weeks, months, or even during the course
of a season. Since 1997, both PGA and LPGA Tour players have used a
tracking system called SportsTrac to monitor their performance.
Similarly, IBM computers at Wimbledon receive an input of shots played
and points won, the umpires record information about the match in
personal digital assistants, and a radar measures the speed of
players' serves. At the end of a match, players and coaches
receive a 40-page report of the collected data.

As the equipment and training regimes of athletes become more
sophisticated, technological innovation will play a larger role in
dictating winners and losers. Races that would have been ties when
measured with older technology will now be definitively decided. Access
to the latest golf balls that fly farther than their predecessors will
not replace hours-long practice sessions, but the technology has become
so advanced that it could make the one or two stroke difference at the
end of the tournament. In the future, records will be broken in
vanishingly small increments, not because there are no more great
athletes, but because technology is helping to optimize the performance
of all.

—EILEEN IMADA

Viewpoint: No, technological advances in sports such as tennis, golf,
and track and field have not supplanted the athletic achievements of the
participants in those sports.

Sports have an intimate quality that makes the use of technology seem
too intrusive. However, the use of technology in sports is not new and
has led to many benefits for mankind. In fact, in some ways, these
advances in technology help to justify the expense of time and money
that we invest in sports. Probably the greatest and most persistent
concern about technology and sports is that it diminishes the prestige
of athletes by blurring the distinction between their accomplishments
and those that are made possible because of the technology.

It certainly is the case that in the hands of a major leaguer an
aluminum bat becomes a lethal weapon. Not only is an aluminum bat a more
consistent tool than a wooden bat, but it also creates more force,
allowing balls to be driven further and harder. In fact aluminum bat,
although allowed in college play, is banned in most professional
leagues, including the major leagues. Similar concerns have been raised
about the differences created in tennis when larger metal rackets
totally replaced wooden rackets at the professional level. And
professional golf has put specific limits upon the materials that can be
used for golf clubs.

It is unlikely that anyone would insist on professional football players
going back to the days when they wore leather helmets on the field.
Similarly, there is no move to prevent athletes from improving their
nutrition or engaging in exercise, often with the most advance
resistance equipment and monitoring instruments. So where does the
controversy lie?

Objections to Sports Technology

There are two situations in which the move to new technology is most
opposed. First, when it is
believed that the "integrity" of the game has been put in
jeopardy. Often the aesthetics and fun of the competition are keenly
dependent upon such things as the dimensions of the field, the bounce of
the ball, the height of the net, and other factors that developed over
time and have proven their value. The second objection to new
technologies is based primarily upon concerns over the health of the
athlete. For instance, performance drugs, particularly street level
performance drugs, have already demonstrated that they can cause illness
and shorten the life spans of athletes. However, there is no doubt that
some performance drugs can provide a margin of victory. This use of
chemicals is perhaps the most difficult technological question that
sports faces today. Looking at the Olympics, we see that there has been
a continual struggle to set standards of fairness and safety, yet there
is strong evidence that some athletes continue to seek an edge in this
way, and, in fact, may be a step ahead of those trying to test them.

There is no question that integrity of the game argument holds in many
cases. The same sort of caution should be shown in the introduction of
new technology as when modifications are made, say, to the size of the
strike zone in baseball or in the limits to roughness allowed in
football. In cases where it could damage the aesthetics of the game or
too abruptly separate today's athletes from past players, it
should be rejected.

And while it is reasonable for athletes to assume some risk in their
professions (in fact, it is expected as part of the game in many
events), there are levels of unreasonable risk, and there are occasions
when risk can be easily prevented. In the cases of performance drugs as
they exist today, it is reasonable to protect athletes from the economic
pressures that might force them to submit their bodies to unreasonable
risk. On the other hand, we have many instances where technology can and
does reduce the probability of injury to athletes. For instance, the
chances of injuring one's arm in tennis go up significantly if
one uses an old wooden racket. And it's obvious that the
protective equipment we have today is of great benefit to athletes. No
one would want to go back to playing baseball without batting helmets,
or playing football without proper padding.

Injuries can be further minimized by the use of ergonomics, sports
psychology, and sports medicine. For instance, a better understanding of
ergonomics can help the pitcher move more fluidly and spare his body
from injuries, even crippling ones. Sports psychology can help athletes
perform better, and sports medicine has given us new approaches to
treating injuries and to maintaining physical health.

Value of Sports and the Role of the Athlete

To show that technology has supplanted athletes would require proving
that the value provided by athletes has shifted in some way to
technologies or away from the sport. So what value does sports promise?
While different people might appreciate sports for different reasons,
clearly sports provide entertainment, celebrity, instruction and
development, commerce, aesthetics, and stories. Is the athlete's
role in any of these degraded by technology?

Entertainment.

Overall, the public's attention to sports, as measured by their
investments in time and money, has never been higher. The status of
individual sports may wax and wane depending upon a number of factors.
One of these, of course, is how much fun the sport is, and this may be
related to how closely it connects with daily life. For instance, it has
been observed that in times of peace Americans tend to gravitate toward
baseball, while in times of war they tend to gravitate toward football.
Probably the most dependable predictor of whether a specific sport will
be of interest is how well it keeps up with the pace of daily life (one
reason given for the growing popularity of soccer over baseball among
the young). Life's pace has continued to increase, and technology
has helped to increase the pace of sports with faster serves, better
runs, and quicker race cars. Technology also helps athletes demonstrate
their full potential, so all manner of records are continually broken.
Judging from the press attention to such feats, it would appear that
these are appreciated by the public, and that they add to the excitement
of sports.

Celebrity.

Sports provides us with people to identify with, cheer for, and boo.
Often our greatest attraction is to people that we know, people that we
essentially share a history with. Technology can often displace these
people if they do not respond well to the changes in the game. (One
crisis in golf came when a younger generation quickly overcame the
older, familiar players, and gate receipts declined.) However, it can
also lengthen careers as better conditioning, new surgical treatments,
and better medication make it possible for highly skilled athletes to
have long careers. With effects on both sides of the ledger, it might be
difficult to determine whether technology, overall, degrades the star
power of athletes.

Instruction and Development.

Sports often provides instruction in many areas. People often come to a
better understanding of the possibilities for improving their health by
observing sports and hearing details of sports treatments and training.
Similarly, sports psychology has helped people to appreciate the
connection between mental health and achievement, if not happiness.
Strategists, particularly in business, have often relied on sports to
provide analogies. And much of the original intent of sports was as

practice for warfare and other conflicts. This may, in some cases,
still have value today.

Given the pressure for success in sports, it is not surprising that
advances in medicine, nutrition, and therapy have their origins in the
world of sports. Since sports can accelerate the toll that life takes on
the human body—wearing down joints and demanding more of muscles
and ligaments—sports medicine has found particular application
among the large and growing population of older people.

Sports also provides a market that supports the development of new
materials and the study of the physics of athletic equipment. Helmets
have been improved in football, and safety equipment is honed to
perfection in auto racing.

Commerce.

Sports, even amateur sports today, is big business. The sales
opportunities for athletes who have been on the scene for a long time
and who can sell to his or her peers are enhanced. In addition, the
updating of equipment, which can be recommended by athletes, can make
sports more lucrative for athletes. This has been seen especially in the
case of athletic shoes. Technology here can support the extension of
careers, and, in a world where wealth is often admired, raise the
respect for athletes. In can also damage the images of athletes who
might be seen as having "sold out" or who have extravagant
lifestyles that seem wholly unlike those of their fans, making them
difficult to identify with. However, the role of technology here would
seem to be minimal. Ticket prices and strikes are the main targets of
fan dis-approbation when commerce lays too heavy a hand on the game.

Aesthetics.

At its best, sports is an artistic endeavor. The motions of athletes
challenge those of the best dancers. The sounds of the crowd or the
crack of a bat or even the gasp of the player surging over the goal line
can rival music. The interaction between players on the field can be
both intricate and intellectually satisfying. It is difficult to
quantify the effects of technology on the aesthetics of sports.
Certainly, there is no artistic merit to a performance that has been
compromised by equipment failure.

There is a large overlap between aesthetics and the
"integrity" of the game. We want to know that the
achievements are real, not faked. Elegance should not come from fancy
camera work or hidden wires. It must be about the body and the mind, and
it must be connected to the traditions of the game. Replace baseballs
with over-sized golf balls, and you'll get more home runs. But
one would miss the timing, rhythm, and judgment of a
"real" home run. And the game itself will no longer be the
one that Babe Ruth played. Have sports ever stepped over the line? The
argument can certainly be made that they have. But not far and not
often. As much as synthetic grass fields are disparaged in baseball,
they have never been as controversial as a nontechnical change, the
introduction of the designated hitter. Free substitution made more
significant changes to football than any amount of body armor. The best
evidence that the integrity of sports has, overall, been maintained is
that history is an important point of comparison in the world of sports,
and fans continue to cheer for the achievements of the best.

Stories.

There may be no greater contribution of sports than the stories it tells
about itself and about us. The triumphs and tragedies of our heroes in
sports provide us with lessons on how we should or should not lead our
lives. They also inspire us and sometimes provide guidance for our
lives. Just by virtue of the careers it lengthens, technology changes
the nature of these stories: there are more novels, fewer short stories.

Against these positives is, again, the question of the integrity of the
game. Is this drama true? Or is the game "fixed?" The 1919
Black Sox scandal stills lives in memory because the public wants, even
needs, an honest game. A technical marvel, such as an advanced rudder,
might take the America's Cup to Australia, but a resulting movie
script, if honest, would more likely deal with the engineers than the
sailors. It is possible to take the athletes out of the story with
technology that actually changes the game, and it is the responsibility
of the commissioners,
referees, and judges to keep that from happening. Based on the
reactions of fans, they are doing a pretty fair job, and the
appreciation of athletes' accomplishments seems to be secure.

There are many ways that a sport can lose its currency with fans: It can
be replaced by another sport that better reflects the spirit of the
times. It can lose the fans' trust and affection through
corruption, the attitude of athletes, or disaster (such as the death of
a popular athlete). It can even be outlawed, as has happened with
cockfighting and has been threatened with contact sports from time to
time. But the tools athletes use and the advances they take advantage of
in medicine, training, nutrition, and psychology have not presented any
serious threats to sports. As long as the integrity of the game and the
safety of athletes are not seriously violated by technological advances,
athletes will still be the heroes of the games.

KEY TERMS

FIBERGLASS:

A vaulting pole made of fiberglass has long, stiff filaments of glass
fiber that is combined with a more flexible polymer. The
stiffness-to-weight ratio can be engineered accordingly to different
specifications.

GRAPHITE:

A carbon-based material commonly used for the frames of tennis rackets.
It's lighter than wood and 10 times stiffer.

User Contributions:

hey, this had got some good info! im doing an assignment on technology in sport n this has given me a variety of things to write about! If possible, can somebody please send me more about this if they have anything. it would really help me!
thanx,
Brooke

I agree with Brooke,
This is the only website I can find that really helps with my assignment on how technological advancements have contributed to improvements in pole vaulting. If anyone has info on ths including techique, clothing and equipment it would be much appreciated,
Olivia

I am a high school IB student working on my historical investigation, and need to validate the credibility of the information that was written my Peter Andrews. Is there an email or some way that I can get in contact with him?